“To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.”

The family is the nucleus of civilization.

Man became free when he recognized that he was subject to law.

Our knowledge is a receding mirage in an expanding desert of ignorance.

Truth always originates in a minority of one, and every custom begins as a broken precedent.

Knowledge is the eye of desire and can become the pilot of the soul.

There is nothing in socialism that a little age or a little money will not cure.

It may be true that you can’t fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.

Education is the transmission of civilization.

Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art.

Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.

Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty and dies with chaos.

A statesman cannot afford to be a moralist.

The love we have in our youth is superficial compared to the love that an old man has for his old wife.

History is mostly guessing; the rest is prejudice.

If man asks for many laws it is only because he is sure that his neighbor needs them; privately he is an unphilosophical anarchist, and thinks laws in his own case superfluous.

Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

The Peace Treaties must be scrapped … I stand for no more war and no more secret diplomacy.

Our diplomacy ended up giving a bad conscience to an international community capable only of expressing noble sentiments while doing nothing.

When diplomacy ends, War begins.

Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘Nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.